


All a Mother can Ask

by Kabal42



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: Missing Scene, Other, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-18
Updated: 2009-04-18
Packaged: 2017-10-13 12:22:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/137302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kabal42/pseuds/Kabal42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Ealdor, people look differently at Arthur than they do at home. Hunith looks at him in her own way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All a Mother can Ask

**Author's Note:**

> Written for lilian_cho who prompted me with "I'd like to see Hunith and Arthur having a conversation when Merlin's off somewhere else =D."  
> Well, here you go! I hope you like what I did with it.
> 
> Contains innuendo and mothers knowing more than their sons.

It took a short while for Arthur to become aware of it the nagging feeling of someone watching you, evaluating your every move. He supposed he was used to that feeling, but it was different out here. He wasn't _their_ prince, just someone who was trying to help, and at least most of them seemed grateful.

Arthur looked up, half expecting to see Will there, wearing the same sceptical or hostile expression he'd worn every time he looked at Arthur, but it wasn't Will looking at him, it was Hunith and her expression was not hostile, though she was most certainly sizing him up.

She smiled when he met her eyes and seemed to take it as an invitation. Arthur pushed aside the sketch Gwen had done of Ealdor, which he'd been poring over, as Hunith sat down across from him.

'Don't let me interrupt,' she said and he was sure that was a test of some sort, despite the soft smile.

'You're our host,' he countered. 'There is no such thing as interruption from you.'

Her smile grew warmer and he felt something akin to approval in that. She was a strange woman; it made sense that Merlin had been raised by her, came from her, with all his disregard for rank and protocol and his, admittedly valuable, way of bursting straight into matters that were not of his concern. The familiarity was already striking and she'd been nothing but kind. Arthur wondered if her suggestions would be of the same slightly shocking and very valuable sort that Merlin's were.

'How is the planning coming along?' she asked, as if she didn't know most of it already.

'Well. I think.' Arthur decided that since she was akin to Merlin it would probably serve no purpose to try and hide things from her.

She nodded. 'I think so, too. Don't let the doubt get to you, Arthur, you are a brilliant young man and you will be able to pull this off even with untrained farmers as your only fighting force.'

Arthur blinked in surprise. He'd expected something brash, pointing out some detail about the sketch, plans or the diagrams he was drawing, not an attempt to bolster his confidence. He looked at her with renewed interest. 'Thank you. Your confidence is very encouraging.'

'No, it's not, but it's kind of you to say so.' She reached across the table and patted his hand in a way he hadn't experienced since he outgrew having a nanny. It was motherly, there was no other word for it. 'You are a good man, Arthur, I can see why Merlin is thriving.'

'He is?' Merlin seemed the scrawniest man in Camelot, and could easily have fooled Arthur, who would have been less surprised if Hunith had announced that Merlin only ate every other day. 'I would hate to see him if he wasn't,' he said without thinking, 'he would be practically invisible.'

Hunith's laugh proved somewhat like Merlin's too, though her eyes didn't scrunch up and go slanted, and the light in them was no-where near as bright, but the sound was similar. 'He's always been that way,' she said, 'and that wasn't what I meant. It's his spirit. He all but glows. Especially around you. And,' she continued before Arthur could even ask what she meant by that, 'so do you.'

Arthur, who'd opened his mouth to ask that question, closed it again and simply stared at her. 'I _glow_?' What was that supposed to mean? What was she even talking about?

The infuriating woman just nodded, smiling that knowing smile as if they were sharing a secret. 'The two of you may not truly know it yet, but you need each other. There's something about you that makes you both better for being together. It's as simple as that.'

'That makes absolutely no sense!' Arthur protested, though he wasn't even sure why he objected that strongly to her words. 'We were both doing just fine before we met!'

'I'm sure you were,' she said, but both her smile and her eyes betrayed that she wasn't really buying it. 'But you are both doing better now.'

'How can you say that? You don't even know me!' Arthur was getting annoyed now.

'Perhaps, but we are a border town, we hear things. Camelot is but two days away. And I've known Gaius all my life, meaning I've also known about you all your life. Not that Gaius would ever say anything negative about you and he never speaks beyond public knowledge.'

Arthur felt a soft flush in his cheeks; given her sources he had a good idea of the level of knowledge she could have, depending on how much stock she put in gossip it might be anything from all right to embarrassing.

'Don't worry.' She had the audacity to pat his hand again, and annoyingly enough he felt it a comfort this time. 'I sent Merlin to Camelot. I never would if I thought ill of you.'

'Of course.' Arthur nodded. She had twisted his perspective a few times already, and yet, he wasn't angry any more. Instead he was starting to accept that perhaps she had good reason to say what she did.

He looked up at her once more. 'So what would you have me do? To capitalise on this thing about making each other better men?'

'That is not for me to say,' she answered, shaking her head. 'How and what you both do with that is up to you and Merlin. I do have one request, though, if you should feel like listening to it.'

Suspecting he had little real say in the matter, Arthur nodded. Besides, he was curious. 'Of course I'll listen.' Not that he was sure he could ever honour her wish.

'Don't ever resent who he is, no matter what happens. Merlin hasn't chosen his path, it was given to him for no reason at all and certainly not of his own doing.'

Now that was a cryptic statement if Arthur had ever heard one! 'I have no idea what that's even supposed to mean,' he said in complete honesty. 'But I can't see how I ever would resent him just for being him. I mean, of course he gets annoying and is incredibly good at almost getting himself killed, but... I don't resent that.'

Hunith stood up, smiling once more, and in another surprising moment walked around the table and hugged Arthur, who went rigid as a board for ten seconds before relaxing enough to allow her to. 'He'll take good care of you and you of him. That's all a mother could ask for.'

Before Arthur had a chance to recover and say something, she'd left and he was sitting there, confused and wishing he knew why he felt she was right on some fundamental level that he had yet to grasp.


End file.
